1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the financial service and banking industries, and, more particularly, to systems, program products, and associated methods for providing a micro-loan product to prepaid cards, bank cards, bank accounts, and bank product management.
2. Related Background
It is known that tens of millions of consumers in the US have either limited or no access to traditional credit, either as a result of poor or limited credit history. It is further known that millions of prepaid cards are issued each year in the United States. It is also known that many of the customers of prepaid cards rely primarily on cash and a prepaid card account for their personal finances; these customers, for example, often do not have a traditional checking, savings, or other bank deposit account, and they usually do not write checks. It has been acknowledged by many that those without bank accounts and who often rely on prepaid cards may be underserved. These consumers are typically not easily able to access credit through traditional banking channels, though they may have an ongoing relationship with a prepaid card issuer, for example.
One area of under-service may be in lending and lending practices. For example, it is recognized that short-term lending is a $20 billion plus per year industry, and some industry experts believe an appropriate manner of offering micro-lending may be through a federal bank, especially to those underserved such as those not having a checking account or other bank deposit account. Yet there can be many obstacles to those being underserved to using a federal bank or any bank for that matter, based on, for example, lack of effective bank products, risks associated with bank products, and costs to those being underserved does not, or is not perceived to, outweigh the benefits for use of existing bank products.